Leadership for Change Prize 2025

Stay tuned to find out about the Leadership for Change Prize 2026

Discover our six-lesson curriculum and competition in partnership with Rolex.

Discover our six-lesson curriculum which empowers 10- to 16-year-olds with the skills to think critically and navigate a "post-truth" world.

Through the curriculum students will develop the critical-thinking, creative problem-solving and media-literacy skills to navigate through fake news and polarisation. Students will learn from leading experts through lessons that unpick the current media landscape, including the impact of AI, social media and press regulation. The programme concludes with students pitching a "Project for Change" to improve media literacy within their school or local community.

Download a sample (Zip)

What is Leadership for Change?

Leadership for Change is an education programme comprised of three core activities:

Curriculum

The six one-hour lessons equip students with the tools and knowledge to tackle media-literacy issues and lead change in their communities.
Live lesson

The live lesson took place online on October 22nd 2025. Students joined interactive activities and heard from inspiring leaders.
Competition

The competition is now closed.
Between September 19th and November 24th 2025, students entered their media-literacy projects into our global competition. Three projects have been awarded funding and mentorship to make them a reality. Meet the winners.

The winning teams received:

Up to £1,000 funding for the winning schools to deliver the chosen project
Three mentorship video calls for students from an experienced leader between January and June 2026
The publication of the winning project on the Topical Talk website
An award for each winning student

About the lessons

News you trust

Discuss and debate truth in a changing media landscape.
Social media and the news

Explore how social media echo-chambers can impact decision-making.
AI and the news

Discover how AI is changing newsrooms and how journalists find and report stories.
Press regulations and the news

Debate the limits of what journalists should report.
Projects for Change

Students will generate ideas and create a plan for their own "Project for Change".
Prepare to pitch

Students will share their ideas and vote for the project they think will have the biggest impact.